Movies…with a little bit of obscure culture and sports mixed in
As one grows older, one grows fonder of stories that don’t treat their audience like adolescents. As one grows older, one appreciates movies that are shadowed with complex dialogue, ambiguous characters and unpredictable plots. Michael Clayton is an anxiety filled reminder that giving the green light to top-notch filmmakers when they have a high concept story with top-quality actors attached is never a bad idea.
“A law firm brings in its “fixer” to remedy the situation after a lawyer has a breakdown while representing a chemical company that he knows is guilty in a multibillion-dollar class action suit.”
Director: Tony Gilroy
Writers: Tony Gilroy
Starring: George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Sydney Pollack
Release Date: October 12, 2007
IMDB
As one grows older, one grows fonder of stories that don’t treat their audience like adolescents. As one grows older, one appreciates movies that are shadowed with complex dialogue, ambiguous characters and unpredictable plots. Michael Clayton is an anxiety filled reminder that giving the green light to top-notch filmmakers when they have a high concept story with top-quality actors attached is never a bad idea.
Director and screenwriter Tony Gilroy has two Oscar nominations, both of are from his work on Michael Clayton. Gilroy’s work with the pen and behind the camera results in a top-notch legal thriller with an extra element of worldwide appeal, due in large part to having George Clooney as the leading man. The story of Michael Clayton is dense. The themes are dark, and the resolution is quiet. There are no big gun fights or exhilarating action pieces to tell the audience to look up from their phones. Michael Clayton deals (with remarkable success) in verbal warfare and a tangled mess of corporate espionage. Clooney gives a great lead performance as the titular character, yet his already high floor is raised by super supplementing parts played by Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton.
Michael Clayton is a “fixer” for a high-priced law firm deep that’s deep in the weeds of a six-year-long defense regarding a company’s pesticide use and negligence of its risky side effects. The law firm is in the middle of a high stakes merger when its top defense litigator decides to go off his meds and jeopardize the entire case, and as a result, the merger. Clayton is good friends with the now rogue lawyer Arthur (Tom Wilkinson), and so the in-debt and over-worked divorced dad is brought on to solve the problem.
Clayton talks with Arthur and discovers that he was in the process of flipping the script. Arthur was ready to go against the company that hired him. He had enough of their lies, and he was in possession of a silver bullet that could send the whole case up in flames.
Karen (Tilda Swinton) is a fixer of sorts for U-North, the company that hired the soon-to-be drastically changed law firm as its defense. Karen does public relations and shmoozing for the company, and she finds herself in deep water when Arthur goes off the deep end and can’t be contacted. Karen has to go to lengths she never expected, and she is tested when she learns of what Arthur has, and what he is capable of.
Michael Clayton is the middleman, caught in between a mountain of rocks and a hard place. He is obligated to do his job to get Arthur back on his feet for the defense, but his relationship with the man makes forcing him to do anything nearly impossible. Clayton is also the only one who can communicate with Arthur, therefore making him a loose end to Karen and U-North. Balancing responsibilities, loyalties and self-preservation, Clayton must navigate this mind field and pray his own feet don’t get cut out from underneath.
Michael Clayton is a tangled web of lies, and damn does it make it so enticing to get stuck in the threads. Right from the get-go, the opening scene, it is immediately conveyed that our protagonist is no natural good guy. The berating in the Westchester kitchen is just a taste of the venom that’s dispatched. Then, remarkably, Michael Clayton pulls off one of the best “XXX amount of days prior” bits. Those story choices usually get an eye roll out of me, but damn if I didn’t love absolutely every bit of this one. Gilroy’s script is so good that when it comes back around to the looping scene, you have the realization that you are having Deja Vu.
Then there is the ending. Oh, this ending is so beautifully dark.
The way Tilda Swinton barges through the doors with the nervous energy of someone who just aced a presentation they had no right passing. Followed by the sudden turn of frozen fear of seeing a ghost. Swinton is not my favorite part of this movie, but she and George Clooney go toe-to-toe in this final scene and she is so good at reluctantly begging the knee.
The character of Karen is dead silent for a full minute before she gets on the defensive. She has been knocked down and scrambling to regather her senses. Unfortunately for her, Clayton just keeps on jabbing away, deflating her aura of confidence with small precise verbal pricks.
“I am not the guy that you kill. I’m the guy that you buy. Are you so fucking blind you don’t even see what I am?”
Can we talk about how good this line-reading this is from George Clooney? He fucking runs through it fast rather than a pregnant pause. I love it. I want to see his other takes, if there are any.
Michael Clayton is tired of it. That line about him acknowledging he has no morals and that he can be bought is a gut punch not only to Karen but also to the audience because it is blatantly telling us that we have been rooting for a version of an asshole. Clayton puts it all out on the table citing how he sold out his friend for a mere 80 grand and a three-year contract.
I love how Gilroy doesn’t have Clayton say, “10 million”. Clayton says “10” and lets Karen fill in the rest. She jumps to that amount. Then when she tries to delay the negotiations, Clayton just drops the hammer with “My car?”. Again, verbal jabs flying in left and right and Karen is left dizzy seeing multiple different outcomes, none of which are good for her or the company.
Then there is the final moment where Karen hangs herself. Clayton is demanding that she say the terms and Karen obliges out of panic and fear. Then an absolutely perfect line delivery of “you’re so fucked.” The smile on Clayton’s face. He can’t hide it. He knows he just won. He has to boast about it a little, and that leaves Karen more frazzled than she already was.
The ending to Michael Clayton rips. I feel like a millennial saying that, but it delivers on so many levels. It is a fantastic ending that is earned.
“I’m Shiva, the God of Death.”
One final homage from Clayton to Arthur. Clayton has brought the ultimate plague upon those who hurt him.
Michael Clayton was sneakily nominated for seven Academy Awards at the 2008 Oscars. It sniffed around for Best Picture, and had George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton nominated for their acting performances. Tony Gilroy got a nod for Best Directing and Best Writing for Original Screenplay. Then there is the score from James Newton Howard.
The 2008 Oscars are a fascinating study. No Country For Old Men (2007) is a damn fine movie, but I would put it a step behind Michael Clayton and more than a few strides behind There Will Be Blood (2007). Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor over Clooney, and that makes sense. Javier Barden beat out Wilkinson for Best Supporting Actor, and again, that makes sense. Tilda Swinton won for Best Supporting, and while I love it for the movie, she was the least scene-stealing of the three nominated.
Gilroy was beaten out for Best Director by the Coen Brothers and in Best Original Screenplay by Diablo Cody for Juno (2007). Atonement (2007) composer Dario Marianelli won for Best Achievement In Music Written For Motion Pictures.
Michael Clayton, despite the critical acclaim, somehow gets forgotten as one of the best legal thrillers of the 2000s. I am so adamant about spreading the good word because I myself was a later adapter of the movie. I first watched the movie somewhere in the mid 20s malaise, and to my shock I gave it a “B.” By no means is that bad, but damn I was lower on it than I expected. I absolutely loved Michael Clayton this time around. I noticed so much more and paid far more attention to every little detail.
Michael Clayton is a movie that FORCES you to pay attention, and it punishes those who don’t. If you get anything from this reaction, it should be to go seek out Michael Clayton. It’s a personal guarantee that you’ll find even the most mundane talk about paperwork absolutely riveting
STANKO RATING: A-
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